Love The Family Visits

 Uncle Tom and Aunt Joyce were out in Arizona for an RV camp/instructional/thingy, so we got to steal them for a couple days! We always LOVE it when family comes out to visit (being the farthest away from everyone in the family makes you really cherish it). The kids LOVED hanging out with their "weird" relatives, eating some super-yummy meals and taking advantage of Aunt Joyce's generosity in shopping...Thanks so much for coming out! We all loved it!!

Girl Scout Hiking Trip

 Olivia's Brownie Troop had a hiking trip in the White Tank Park. They hiked all the way up to the waterfall (about 1 mile) and witnessed a true Arizona waterfall--a trickle down the rocks. She's been having a lot of fun with these girls in all their different activities.

Big Boy Bed

Yes, he's 3. No he never once tried to get out of his crib, so why would we put him into a bed that he can get out of at 5:30 in the morning? He finally started asking to stop having bars around his bed and to sleep in a big boy bed, so we complied. He still hasn't figured out that he can get out of it whenever he wants, and we aren't going to tell him!...

Disneyland!!

 Every kid's dream come true! We spent 3 magical days in Disneyland. The kids were all troopers, and NEVER wanted to head back to our hotel. Even midst tears and hurting feet they wanted to trudge along to the next ride, the next experience.

Quinten LOVED all the rides and threw fits over all the rides he was too short to ride on. By far, his favorites were the trains, luckily Disneyland has 3 trains so we were never far from a ride for him!!

 Luckily Nana was willing to join us on our adventure, and we all LOVED that! We had 3 adults, one for each kid, and everyone had a hand to hold. I don't know what we would have done without you Nana! Thank you so much!!

 Sometimes when we needed a break, we would just sit and ride Disney's monorail. Everyone would relax except for Quinten, train riding was serious business. He would wait until we were off the train to fall asleep.

 By far the longest wait was to meet the princesses. I totally didn't think it was worth the wait, but that is ALL Isabelle talked about the entire trip...so apparently it was a success!

 We got to meet both Tiana and Ariel.

 This is how we all ended up most afternoons.

 Olivia was the only one big enough to ride every single ride, and that she did! She has finally caught a thrill for roller coasters, and she and Shayne rode ALL of them...Izzy was still a little reserved, even splash mountain and Pirates were a little too scary for her.

 While Mom, Dad, or Nana took Olivia on the bigger rides, Izzy and Quinten were never at a loss of stuff to do: getting autographs from all the characters, riding endless teacups, carousels, eating all sorts of snacks, etc.

 We gave each of the kids spending money for the parks, and it was so nice to say yes to everything they asked, "Can we get cotton candy?--yes, you have your money", "Can I get mickey ears?--yes, you have your money", "Can I buy a train?--yes, you have your money"--although Quinten didn't quite get the concept and just wanted a train in every store we went in. The girls really weighed their decisions on what would be best to spend their money on, and both decided that the $14 face-painting was worth it!! Quinten ended up with two trains, Izzy bought a Flynn-Rider barbie to go with her Rapunzel, and Olivia bought a Cinderella locket. Everyone was SO HAPPY with their purchases!

 We watched quite a few shows, but the kids absolute favorite was the Disney parade.

 We got front-row spots, and loved all the interaction by the characters. the parade had some technical difficulties and our luck, the princess float got stuck in front of us for at least 10 minutes...they were all in heaven!!

We had such a magical trip, the kids are ready to go back next week. However, that was one of the most tiring, stressful, busy, non-relaxing family vacations Shayne and I have taken...ever. Loved every minute, but I think it'll be a few years before we do it again! :)

Newport Beach

 Our first night out to California, we went to a local beach. It was still quite chilly, but that didn't stop the kids from running to catch the waves, hunting for sand crabs and making sand castles.

Family Vacation

We decided to take a family vacation over Spring Break this year. For the past 2 weeks, we've been giving the kids clues to where we were going. It's been a lot of fun watching them try to guess from our clues to go to a place that they've never been before. Some of our clues were: there are mice bigger than Daddy, you can drive a car even before you are sixteen, we might ride in a submarine, we could get chased by a fox into a briar patch, etc. The Sunday before we left, we gave them their final clue. This is them opening it.

Happy Birthday Bubba-licious!

 I can't believe my little man is officially 3! It absolutely blows my mind. He has been counting down to this day for QUITE A WHILE, plotting out which trains to get, because of course, the ONLY thing that exists in life is...TRAINS. He loved celebrating his birthday at preschool bringing doughnuts, having the kids sing to him and create his crown.

 All he wanted to do for his birthday was a family adventure to..surprise, surprise...the train park, where we had way too much fun and ended up in tears (it's our yearly birthday tradition). He scored some AWESOME presents, a talking Henry, a talking Diesel 10, a Thomas pillow pet, a new church outfit, and a Thomas outfit. 

Quinten is the little jokester of the family right now. He thinks he is hilarious, and usually he is right. He is dutifully fulfilling his role as little brother and makes sure that he gets in his quota of annoying his sisters each and every day. He is all about dirt, burbs, farts, and being wild. We are yet to master the whole potty-training, wait poopy training thing. He's actually really great at peeing on the toilet (on his Thomas potty seat), but poop...that's another story...there's always next year.

Dr. Seuss's Birthday

 We LOVE Dr. Seuss in our house. Every year to commemorate his birthday, we always HAVE to cook Green Eggs and Ham. Then usually for the next two weeks, the kids ask for it every day.

Zoo-learning

 We always love going to the zoo. We let Olivia skip school to go on a preschool field trip with us, and we had a blast!! We learned a lot of things...In the kangaroo enclosure, we found out that kangaroos like to eat duck food (you know, from the little dispensers). Our kids still had some from the pond, and the kangaroos just ate it right out of their hands.

 We learned that you can't do ANYTHING in the zoo without riding the train FIRST! Bubba just won't stop until we get that out of the way...

 The petting zoo is quite a frightful place for a child...the llamas wouldn't leave us alone and kept trying to take their shirts off...we didn't last long.

 The giraffes sometimes decide that they don't like what you are trying to give them and will spit it back at you...

Even though the zoo keepers give you a 2 minute warning to get out of the Lory feeding area before the birds start pooping, some of them have FAST digestive systems. We got caught in the cross-fire.

Also, when we were on the sky-ride, I was riding with Bubba. We were talking about what we could do this high, like touch the tops of the trees, etc. and Quinten came up with..."We could pee on everybody". He's not even three and he's already thinking like a full-fledged boy...ugh!

People Watching

 Both Shayne and I LOVE to people-watch. I had no idea what effect this would have on our kids, until I walked out into the garage and they had set up a "people'watching" station of their own!! We have to admit, even people watching in our front yard can be pretty interesting...

Quinten's Cooking

Quinten finally decided that he wanted in on the weekly cooking that I do with the girls. He chose his first meal, pancakes, and his absolute favorite part was...cracking the eggs! Way to go Bubba! Those were some yummy pancakes for dinner!

We're Painting The Roses Red

 This has become such a fun activity for my kids. We only have 3 fruit trees, and whenever one of them blossoms, the kids all beg for paintbrushes so that they can go "paint" the flowers. They do a WAY better job pollenating than the few bees we get do...Last year we had over 200 peaches (we had to pull off about 1/3 because they were too heavy for the branches) on our 5 ft. peach tree! I. Love. It!

Heroes

I had a dream last night that Shayne was a member of a Navy Seal team and he was saving the world by finding cubes and protecting the world from the Decepticons. I made the mistake of telling him about said dream because all day, he makes us all refer to him as: the hero, and keeps reminding us that he's saving the world...